Code-switching in Pattern B

… T1 [E1] T1…

Pattern B, which resembles Auer’s (1995) Pattern IV (… A1 B1 A1 …), represents insertional CS in which an English item (either intra-, inter- or extra-sentential) is embedded within a Thai utterance without causing the informants to switch to English in their next turn.

However, since this basic pattern for insertional CS is too broad to adequately account for insertional CS in my data, as previously argued in Section 4.2.1, and insertional CS is the dominant type of CS found in my data, I distinguished CS in Pattern B into eight new sub-patterns in a way that reflects its relationship with surrounding texts as clearly as possible.

107 4.6.1 Pattern B1

… T1 “[E1]” T1 …

CS in Pattern B1 occurred when the informants reported an English utterance from a past event or an imaginary discussion. As illustrated below, an English switch may be preceded or followed (indicated by a curved double arrow) by explicit quotative markers.

Thai item / Thai quotative marker + English item / Thai item T1 T1 “[E1]” T1

In my data, English quotations were marked by the Thai quotative markers bòk wâ/phût wâ (English: say that), bòk/phût (English: say), wâ (English: that), thăm (English:

ask), kô (English: then), sŏn wâ (English: teach that), bàep (English: like) and ma (English:

come). In Pattern B1, the reported English item, which may be at the intra-, inter-, or extra-sentential level, is represented as “[E1]” . However, CS in Pattern B1 is not always explicitly flagged with Thai quotative marker, but by prosodic cues such as higher/lower pitch,

loudness, rhythm of talk, as well as the context of the interaction and the sequences of the utterances (Tagliamonte, 2012).

The function that is most commonly associatd with CS used in this way is quotation (Gumperz, 1982). It has been reported numerous times in the literature, and thus now considered rather unsurprising. Basically, CS as quotation points to “the ‘real’ language spoken by its ‘real’ speaker in a different context” (Chan, 2004, p.15), or their expected language choice in cases of imaginary conversations). This is demonstrated in Example 4.18.

Thai quotative marker is marked with double underline.

Example 4.18

Speaker 4B quotes her English husband’s views on her behaviour toward her mother.

1 4B: faen mâe loei wâ châo- châo- you spoil your mum husband mum then say you you you spoil your mum My husband then said “you- you- you spoil your mum.”

2 sàdaeng wâ lao wâ khoî tamchai mâe yù

show that he criticise I spoil mother still [This] means that he criticised me that I spoiled my mum

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3 bò sao maâe kà leoi pen nísăi chang sî

no stop mother then PP be habit like this all the time, so she behaved like this.

The quotative marker wâ (English: say/speak) preceding the inter-sentential switch clearly indicates that you spoil your mum in line 1 is a quotation. The interesting aspect of Example 4.18 is Speaker 4B’s self-correction in line 1. After the quotative marker wâ, Speaker 4B starts quoting her English husband in Thai: châo- châo- (English: you- you-).

However, instead of completing the reported speech in Thai, Speaker 4B stops and switches into the English utterance you spoil your mum. As the switch is preceded by the repetition of châo (English: you), which seems to indicate word recall difficulty, one may argue that the switching occurred because Speaker 4B does not know the Thai equivalent of the word spoil and thus, decides to resort to English as lexical gap filler (Poplack, 1980; Myers-Scotton, 1992b; Nishimura, 1995b; Bullock and Toribio, 2009). However, this explanation does not hold in the case, as it is immediately clear in line 2 that Speaker 4B knows the Thai equivalent of the English word spoil: tamjai. Thus, it is likely that the self-initiated repair of Speaker 4B in line 1 is her attempt to use the language that corresponds to the original speaker’s language choice when quoting him. Here, CS indexes the original language used by the original

speaker.

While I acknowledge the basic quotative function of CS, as I have shown in the discussion above, I would argue that CS as quotation plays a much more significant role in ongoing talk other than just to quote a certain speaker. When the informants performed CS as quotation, they also added details and vividness to a narrative. In other words, CS as

quotation is a narrative tool with which one can create “good stories, gripping drama, believable (though not necessarily ‘true’) historical accounts” (Bruner, 1986, p.13), making the narrative more flavourful. It also “[makes] events from other contexts ‘come to life’”

(Hauser, 2015, p. 871). Consider Example 4.19.

Example 4.19.

Speaker 2B talks about her argument with a South Asian-British taxi driver who expressed his discontent about living in the UK.

1 2B: tàe- tàe (.) nó kô wâ ma yù thî nî

but but INTERJ then think come stay place this But- but [I] think that coming to live here,

2 rao kô tông khaoróp- khaoróp

we then must respect respect we must respect- respect

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3 bân mueang khŏng khăo thâ ↑mâi yindee

home city of they if not willing to

their country. If [you’re] not willing to

4 kô klàp pai dí phût thŭeng

then return go PP speak to then just go back. [I’m] just saying.

5 mŭean yù bon taxi à (.) I hate it here.

like be on taxi PP I hate it here.

Like in the taxi, “I hate it here,

6 °I don’t like it here. I don’t want to stay here.° ↑áw ! I don’t like it here. I don’t want to stay here. INTERJ I don’t like it here. I don’t want to stay here.” Oh!

7 mai tông stay here lá ↑kô klàp bân mueng

why must stay here PP then return home you why must [you] stay here? Just go back to your country.

8 pai ↑dí yù thammai là

go PP stay why PP

Why are [you] staying?

According to Speaker 2B, her entire conversation with the taxi driver was in English.

By switching into English when quoting the taxi driver, she makes apparent that the

utterances are not hers but those of the taxi driver. Therefore, the most basic function of CS in Example 4.19 is to report the language choice of the taxi driver. However, a closer

examination revealed that Speaker 2B’s CS may also serves other functions beyond simple quotation. Speaker 2B’s use of Thai to express her own words, and English to express the taxi driver’s words signals a change in speakership. Consequently, the two-party interaction between Speaker 2B and the taxi driver becomes more clearly illustrated, and thus the narrative becomes more alive. This is further enhanced through Speaker 2B’s consistent use of Thai to express her positive attitude towards living in the UK (lines 1 to 4) and English to express the taxi driver’s negative attitude (lines 5 and 6). By doing so, Speaker 2B

strategically assigns different attitudes towards living in the UK to different parties in the narrative, as well as disclaims the negative attitude implied within the quoted English utterances.

How CS as quotation enhances a narrative is further illustrated in Example 4.20. Here, not only CS distinguishes different speakers in the narrative and identifies their language choice, it also creates new characters, or voices, that represent certain social communities

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with which the switching language is associated. This type of quotation was probably first brought to light by Rampton (1995, 1998, 1999a, 199b, 2009, 2013) through his notions of language crossing and stylisation. Language crossing and stylisation occur when speakers adopt a language, and often phonological features and prosodic features such as change of stress, rhythm and tone, which are associated with a social group of which they are not members (Cutler, 1999; Bailey, 2000; Quist and Jørgensen, 2007; Chun, 2009; Rampton, 2013; Furukawa, 2015). For example, in Quist and Jørgensen (2007, p. 383), a white Danish teenage speaker is reported to have produced the Arabic switch wallah (English: I swear) and marked it with a change of intonation to mimic his friend from an ethnic minority

background, and by doing so creating the character of “a foreigner who speaks a non-native variety of Danish”. Similarly, in my data, the informants perform CS in Pattern B1 to imitate speakers of English in a way that invokes cultural values and stereotypical images associated with the English language and people being mimicked. Drawing on the notion of language crossing and stylisation in Rampton (1995, 1999a, 199b, 2009, 2013), I refer to this type of quotation as stylised quotation.

Example 4.20

Speakers 8A and 8B are talking about how the manners of English people are different from their expectations.

1 8B: ma yù mueang phûdi=

come live city aristocrat

Living in the country of aristocrats (= England)…

2 8A: = ((gentle tone)) Excuse me, plea::se /ɪkskʰɪʊ mi, pʰli::s/

Excuse me, please Excuse me, please,

3 [mâen ] bò la oe correct PP PP INTERJ right?

4 8B: [ahahahaha ] bò khoei dâi

no ever get [I’ve] never

5 yin chàk thûea kham wâ (.) excuse me chàk thûea hear even once word that excuse me even once heard the word excuse me even once, not once.

6 8A: (huhuhahahaha)

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7 8B: (hhhh) sir kô bò ↑mi chàk thûea sir also no have even once Not even once of sir.

8 8A: (hahahahaha) nai năng- bò khue nai năng mâen bò=

in movie not like in movie correct PP In the movies- [it’s] not like in the movies, right?

9 8B: =bò khue năng nai năng nîa not like movies in movies PP [It’s] not like in the movies. In the movies,

10 ((slightly high-pitched)) ↑Thank you, si:r. ↑Welcome, si:r Thank you, sir. Welcome, sir thank you, sir. Welcome, sir.

11 8A: áw nân nă:ng nó: (huhahahahahaha) INTERJ that movie PP

Well, that’s movies!

12 8B: (hhh) bàt nî (.) moment this Now,

13 ((almost screaming)) >CAN I HAVE SOUP, (.) PLEASE!<